The Mission
Save Clearwater.
From the takeover.
For fifty years, Scientology has been quietly taking over downtown Clearwater. What began in 1975 with the secret purchase of the Fort Harrison Hotel is now a majority of the commercial real estate on Cleveland Street — much of it intentionally kept dark and empty. Locals call it what it is: an occupation.
Mark Bunker has spent three decades standing in the way. He founded Xenu TV in 1999, moved to Clearwater in 2000 to help the people Scientology had hurt, earned a Pacific Southwest Emmy for investigative reporting, contributed to Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath, and in 2020 became the first openly anti-Scientology candidate to win a Clearwater City Council seat in decades.
For four years, every Scientology-adjacent vote was a public fight. When Mark lost reelection in 2024, the fights went quiet. Within eleven months the new council reversed course on the record. On April 21, 2026, Scientology cut a ribbon downtown to celebrate what Tony Ortega called a "hostile takeover."
Clearwater needs Mark back. Seat 5 on August 18, 2026 is the fight.